Jim Casada

Jim Casada, a native of Bryson City in Western North Carolina, shares his lifelong love of fly fishing in this encyclopedic book. Anyone interested in fly fishing in the Great Smokies will find this book invaluable.more

Jack Coburn was a pivotal figure in regional affairs at the onset of the Great Depression, and arguably of greater significance in the Park’s creation than anyone on the North Carolina side of the Smokies.more

Sam Hunnicutt introduces his book by stating, “I claim to be a perfect hunter and fisherman for game fish; I know the best kinds of hunting outfit to use, I know the best kind of gun to use for killing game and also the best dogs to use for hunting.”more

With the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934, early park bureaucrats attempted to rewrite history by presenting the land largely as a primeval wilderness instead of preserving the folkways of its bustling communities.more

The better part of a century has passed since the individual who was arguably the finest lawyer and legal mind ever to call Haywood County home was in active practice, and next year will mark a half century since his death.more

“Why he ain’t a professor; he’s just an old dirt dauber.” Several decades ago that’s how a woman known to locals as the “plant lady” described me to another customer who mentioned that I taught at the local university.more

In many ways Grandpa Joe was a boy trapped in an old man’s body. As full of tricks as a pet ’coon, tough as a seasoned hickory sapling, and imbued with 70-plus years of Smokies wisdom, he possessed an unflagging sense of adventure.more

Grandpa Joe offered a study in character contrasts. Though easygoing and soft-spoken, he was mule stubborn. While tough as a well-seasoned hickory shaft and seldom given to shows of emotion, he could be wonderfully patient with his adoring grandson.more

The life’s blood of the high country, rivers wander across the mountain landscape like laughter lines etched on an old man’s face. Theirs is a storied past, for major waterways form sparkling threads woven through the entire fabric of human history.more

A half million acres of sheer loveliness featuring breathtaking scenic vistas, the greatest ecological diversity of the Northern Hemisphere, waterfalls galore, hundreds of miles of trails, and only a single avenue of asphalt bisecting its fastness.more

An avenue of asphalt winds its way along hundreds of miles of ridge lines forming a world of natural wonder. The Blue Ridge Parkway offers a bounty of blessings, and perhaps nothing quite matches the breathtaking beauty of the Parkway’s wildflowers.more

Sport has always been a bright thread woven into the fabric of the mountain folkways. Long before creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the area’s steep ridges and deep hollows were cherished bear hunting territory.more

On one occasion my good wife, in a moment of exasperation, said, “You like to wander alone so much, your epitaph will probably read—‘Jim Casada hated people.’” That’s not the case, but there are times when I prefer people in mighty small doses.more